1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electronic equipment to which is attached for display a mechanism on which auxiliary information is depicted, and an auxiliary information display device which is attached to the electronic equipment. More specifically, the present invention relates to electronic equipment that is well suited for a portable information communication terminal having a low-resolution display unit, an auxiliary information display device attached to the electronic equipment, and a portable game machine.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Every portable information communication terminal or a small portable game machine can operate independently by itself and can execute applications software such as programs for various data processing and game programs. A portable information communication terminal or small portable game machine, besides being used as an auxiliary computation and memory resource connected to various consoles in which the home-use console of a personal computer or video game machine serves as the parent machine, can communicate with external devices through its wireless communication functions or other communication functions.
A conventional portable information communication terminal or a small portable game machine has as its display unit a liquid crystal display, for example. However, a conventional portable information communication terminal or small portable game machine can have as its display unit only a small, low-resolution liquid crystal display, such as one of 32-by-32-dot size, and it has been difficult to display auxiliary information that requires a high-resolution display unit, such as menus, icons, or other marks.
In order to display such auxiliary information it has been necessary, in a conventional portable information communication terminal or a small portable game machine, to incorporate predetermined pictures into a liquid crystal. Such a technique lacks generality and has been an impediment to replacing and executing various applications software.
In a conventional portable information communication terminal or small portable game machine, auxiliary information of sufficient generality for various types of applications software has sometimes been written directly into a liquid crystal peripheral unit. Even in such cases it has been difficult to handle a wide variety of applications software.
It is an object of this invention, which was devised in consideration of the aforementioned problems, to provide electronic equipment that can do data processing and to which a mechanism to make an auxiliary display of icons or other marks is attached, and an auxiliary information display device to be attached to the electronic equipment.
To obtain the above and other objects the electronic equipment of this invention comprises a display means to display information, an auxiliary information display means on which information that is auxiliary to the information displayed on the display means is depicted on a substrate, and a display window on which are simultaneously displayed, in a superimposed state, the information displayed by the display means and the auxiliary information that is displayed on the auxiliary information display means. The auxiliary information display means has a movable substrate on which at least auxiliary information is depicted.
In the electronic equipment of this invention composed as described above, besides the information displayed on the display means, auxiliary information is displayed on the display window.
Also, the auxiliary information display device of this invention is characterized in that it is positioned inside the display window of the electronic equipment, it has an auxiliary information display layer in which auxiliary information of the information displayed on the display means of the electronic equipment is depicted on a substrate, and at least the auxiliary information display layer is movable.
In the auxiliary information display device of this invention composed as described above, besides the information that is displayed by the display means of the electronic equipment, auxiliary information is displayed in the display window of the electronic equipment.
The portable game machine of this invention is a portable game machine comprising a display means that displays the game content, and an auxiliary information display means is provided on the front, back, or both the front and back of said display means, and the image displayed on said display means and the displayed content of said auxiliary information display means are combined and made visible. The display means consists of, for example, a reflective liquid crystal panel. For example, said display means may display mostly characters, while said auxiliary information display means may display, for example, either menus, icons, or background scenes.
In such a portable game machine, even if a low-resolution display means is used, information necessary for the game can be provided to game players by composing high-resolution auxiliary information with it.
By making it replaceable and movable, the auxiliary information display means is able to combine various kinds of auxiliary information according to the game content displayed on the display means.